Gaps in policy-making capacities: interest groups, social movements, think tanks and the media

2020 ◽  
pp. 178-204
Author(s):  
Ian Marsh
Author(s):  
Peter John

British Politics provides an introduction to British politics with an emphasis on political science to analyse the fundamental features of British politics, and the key changes post-Brexit. Part A looks at constitutional and institutional foundations of the subject. Chapters in this part look at leadership and debating politics and law creation. The second part is about political behaviour and citizenship. Here chapters consider elections, the media, agenda setting, and political turbulence. The final part is about policy-making and delegation. The chapters in this part examine interest groups, advocacy, policy-making, governing through bureaucracy and from below, delegating upwards, and British democracy now.


2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 281-292
Author(s):  
Ксения Сергеевна Семыкина

This article analyses media representations of LGBT social movements, taking the case of Saint Petersburg LGBT pride parades. The analysis is developed through the use of framing theory, which views the media as an arena where interest groups promote their own interpretations of particular issues. Frames juxtapose elements of the text in such a way as to provide the audience with a scheme within which to perceive the message. Social movements are viewed as interest groups that introduce new frames in public debate. Two types of frames can be distinguished: collective action frames and status quo frames. In this study, the usage of two collective action frames (equality frame and victim frame), and two status quo frames (morality frame and propaganda promoting homosexuality frame) were examined. Additionally, the sources of quotes used in news stories were analyzed. The study focuses on articles dedicated to Saint Petersburg LGBT pride marches in the years 2010–2017 in the most popular local Internet websites. The analysis shows that the coverage of LGBT pride marches can be divided into two distinct periods: 2010–2013 and 2014–2017. In the first period, LGBT activists dominated the coverage, quoted about twice as much as government officials. Equality and victim frames were prevalent. In the second period, activists were cited significantly less often, with the propaganda promoting homosexuality frame dominating the discourse. However, contrary to findings of previous studies on social movement representation, across the whole period under consideration, LGBT activists were quoted more often than government representatives. This finding calls for a further exploration of the conditions which allowed for such coverage in the context of political heterosexism and homophobia.


2020 ◽  
Vol 69 (3) ◽  
pp. 368-384
Author(s):  
Niloshree Bhattacharya ◽  
Manish Thakur

This paper addresses a rather understudied aspect of the ways through which protests get translated into policies by focussing on the actors, spaces and processes. It further identifies key actors in the policy making formulation process, which we call ‘policy intermediaries’. It discusses the emergence of ‘policy intermediaries’ in relation to the history of social movements in post-colonial India. It situates the policy making processes in the country and the role of ‘policy intermediaries’ therein, in the overall context of changing configurations of relationships amongst the state, non-governmental organisations, think tanks and the emergent transnational networks and discourses. By implication, it maps out some of the attributes of middle class activism with illustrations from select social movements in India. The paper explores the multiple spaces in which ‘policy intermediaries’ function, the diverse roles they play and the networks in which they are wilfully or otherwise enmeshed.


Author(s):  
Elizabeth Suhay ◽  
Bernard Grofman ◽  
Alexander H. Trechsel

Electoral persuasion rests at the center of the democratic process. Politicians, parties, interest groups, members of the media, and citizens themselves are constantly communicating with one another about electorally relevant topics. These communications will ultimately influence—although not always in predictable ways—voters’ choices and, therefore, election outcomes and the direction of government. Scholarship on this important topic has exploded in recent decades. Yet, there have been relatively few efforts to synthesize the accumulated knowledge. In this volume, we bring together accomplished scholars who study one or more aspects of electoral persuasion—who communicates with whom about democratic politics, what they communicate about and why, how and where they communicate, and with what effect. The result is a vibrant collection of US-based and international perspectives on the relevant actors, their motivations and methods of persuasion, and their varied influences on electoral choice.


Author(s):  
Tatiana Carayannis ◽  
Thomas G. Weiss

This book is about the Third UN: the ecology of supportive non-state actors—intellectuals, scholars, consultants, think tanks, NGOs, the for-profit private sector, and the media—that interacts with the intergovernmental machinery of the First UN (member states) and the Second UN (staff members of international secretariats) to formulate and refine ideas and decision-making at key junctures in policy processes. Some advocate for particular ideas, others help analyze or operationalize their testing and implementation; many thus help the UN “think.” While think tanks, knowledge brokers, and epistemic communities are phenomena that have entered both the academic and policy lexicons, their intellectual role remains marginal to analyses of such intergovernmental organizations as the United Nations. The Third UN in this volume connotes those working toward knowledge and normative advances for the realization of the values underlying the UN Charter; the book does not discuss armed belligerents and criminals, the main focus of previous analyses of non-state actors and the UN system.


Author(s):  
Stuti Bhatnagar

The role of think tanks as policy actors has developed over time and created significant global scholarship. Widely understood as non-state policy actors, think tanks established either with or without the support of government have evolved in various political contexts with varied characteristics. They are avenues for the discussion of new policy ideas as well as used for the consolidation of existing understandings of global and national political issues. As ideational actors think tanks interact with policy frameworks at different levels, either in the framing stage or at the stage of consensus building towards certain policies. Intellectual elites at think tanks allow for the introduction of think tank ideas into the policy frames as well as the creation of public opinion towards foreign policy decisions. Think tank deliberations involve an interaction with policymakers, academic experts, business and social actors, as well as the media to disseminate ideas. Institutionally, think tanks in a wide variety of political contexts play a critical role in the making of foreign policy and bring closer attention to processes of state–society interactions in different political environments.


2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 26
Author(s):  
Jokhanan Kristiyono ◽  
Rachmah Ida ◽  
Musta'in Mashud

This research analyses and describes in detail how the digital biennale activities that are a part of the Indonesian Digital art community has become a form of criticism and silent resistance to the social hegemony. It refers to the ideology, norms, rules, and myths that exist in modern society in Indonesia, especially the reproduction of hoax content. Hoax refers to the logic people who live in a world of cyber media with all of its social implications. This phenomenon is a problem, and it is at the heart of the exploration of the art community in East Java Biennale. The critical social theory perspective of Gramsci’s theory forms the basis of this research analysis. The qualitative research approach used a digital ethnomethodology research method focused on the online and offline social movements in the Biennale Art Community. The data collection techniques used were observation and non-active participation in the process of reproduction-related to the exhibition of Indonesian Biennale digital artworks. It was then analyzed using Gramsci’s hegemony theory. The purpose of this study was to describe the process of social movements in a digital format conducted by the Indonesian Biennale when reproducing works of art to counteract the dominance and hegemony of the Hoax phenomenon in Indonesia. The benefit of this research was that it obtained a preposition of Gramsci’s hegemony theory in the world of digital art as created by contemporary Indonesian Biennale artists. Digital technology has had a tremendous effect on the media industry, government, trade, informal industry sector, human resources, urban planning, services, disaster relief, health, education, religion, artistic and cultural expression, in addition to various other fields. The conclusion obtained from this research is that there is a formation of a new hegemony, a digital hegemony. This new hegemony is of particular concern for the digital artists in East Java Biennale. Through the digital format works, the artists also try to communicate their art as a form of silent resistance, protest, and criticism of the hegemony that occurs in society, referring to the ideology, norms, and myths. It can be called a digital counter-hegemony.s


2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 226
Author(s):  
Gabriel Facal ◽  
Gloria Truly Estrelita

Faced with global and systemic crises, neoliberal oriented governments are taking on more authoritarian forms of governance. By using the power of the media, justice, the police, and a set of government technologies, this authoritarian style manifests itself in alternating phases of low-key brutality and crises of ostentatious repression designed to frighten and demoralize opposition social movements. Confronted with these modes of government, the social movements adopt different tactics of mobilization, ranging from direct confrontation to forms of compromise and civil disobedience. With the climate crisis as well as the globalization of social struggles, these movements adopt new political strategies, which question the dichotomy between violence and non-violence. Using a historical and anthropological approach, this paper studies two cases in contemporary Indonesia and France. It shows that the objectives of the groups involved and the national socio-political and cultural background shape the local specificities of these strategies. The comparison, however, reveals similarities at both levels. It shows the persistence and even strengthening of class and oligarchy networks in the implementation of authoritarian-style neoliberal policies. It also points to the respective effectiveness of violent and non-violent tactics in the implementation of militant strategies.


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